They don't like it up 'em

It seems some serfs dared to question the wisdom of his Great Reforms. It seems that slavery was a step too far for "ordinary folk" who quite like a bit of X-Factor, and that a department used to getting their own way with absolutely everything - sending cancer patients to the jobcentre, halving support for disabled children and conducting a programme of disability denial I am not allowed to make any comparisons with (*cough* Nazi Germany *cough*) - do NOT like the masses having opinions.

This has made ministers Very Cross.

They have accused their critics of being "A small group of anti-capitalist extremists" (Grayling) "Luddites" "liars" and "elitist snobs" (IDS)

For daring to suggest that forced, unpaid, work, might be a teeny-weeny bit like slavery.

Gracious!! And there was me being so awfully, excruciatingly, polite with all that Spartacus Report stuff!!

So apart from the obvious retort : Pot. Kettle. Black . I just wanted to say one thing.

This department (DWP) have used politicised press releases, media bias, misleading statistics & misrepresentation at EVERY stage, as they tried to push through changes that will hurt millions. It has set neighbour against neighbour, poor against wealthy, sick against healthy. It has knowingly and purposely used the most damning spin and the most cruel angles.

Watching them stamp their feet in a frenzy of entitlement has given me much pleasure. Watching their outrage whilst keeping one eye on the Daily Mail comments - unanimously against the scheme on votes - has been delicious.

48 comments:

Nice one! I'm hoping I will be well enough to go to a meeting with staff from the Office for Disability Issues (part of DWP) tomorrow at which they're going to ask us for ideas for their Disability Strategy!!! I want to go because I want to say some very strong things about hypocrisy (might not use that word but my meaning will be clear, methinks). I will relish, in a kind of negative, evil way, the idea of asking them how on earth they expect to achieve all the brilliant outcomes in their so-called Disability Strategy if they remove all the resources that can be used to achieve them! (Shakes head in utter bemusement....)

what they need is a good hanging followed by a good beating just to make sure they've no breath left in them, and they can't make any claim from the state because they are ineligible, as the purveyors of exploitation and nazism

Isn't it great Sue Dunky Smith throwing his dummy out the pram cos the tory press aren't toeing the line anymore. He's up to his neck in lies, lets hope they choke him. Love your blog, hope you are feeling better.

Luddites were not actually anti capitalist, or anti progress, they were simply fighting to retain the standard of life (they were very well paid at the time, as they were trained craftsmen. So being called Luddite, is actually for once a correct comment on the part of the Govt, although they were misinformed as to its correct meaning, no surprise there! I for one am proud of the comparison, because it shows that the desire to fight to keep what is hard gained still holds strong today...

Sue my experience of my sick disabled family and friends they have no idea what is happening. Then they are told your 'well' thinking they were sick and safe at moment to shock horror called to job centre? These are people with long term, life limiting illness or disability. Because the phone calls and letters are not clear at all and the money in WRAG group is the same as previous IB they are left unaware and in utter shock, along with worry ......what now??? All circumstances have been different dealing with atos but I now know this has been done deliberately to confuse sick people. This is an utter outrageous disgrace and lowest of the low implementation of government. On calling welfare rights and job centre plus they know the disgrace of what is happening. IDS I would not like this legacy left in my name.Nobody but nobody deliberately makes the self sick, disabled or unemployed, but IDS punish us for it........sleep tight, the majority of us don't.

Good question that anon above...who indeed but when you look a whats happening around them then things in the bullingdon rose garden aint so bloody rosey..I mean RBS loses HOW BLOODY MUCH again so just what are we paying hester the jester for exactly.....a4hehehehe being more thoroughly investigated ....Clegg allegedley briefing the libdem lords to stall the health bill..(source the daily mirror) and ohhh again in the mirror the govt us using the so called Swedish derogation tactic to deny agency workers working in Govt departments equal pay after 12 weeks and the mirror reports in the same article that a certain agency has a 450 MILLION quid govt contract and is one of many using this loophole.So here we have a govt who is banging on about creating jobs who is not only using slave labour to help out thier donors but is also using con tricks on agency workers with great delight...yes documents seen state that the 11 week cut off must be used...JUST how long these bastards think they can get away with it all i dont know so yeah good question but as the public wake up more and more to these upstairs downstairs merchants we have to hope that even though we will suffer them for awhile yet at the next election we should rid ourselves of them and we should also all demand political reform so that any mp has an employment contract with legal and binding terms of employment that WE decide not them.....sackable and accountable for any actions that harm the voters....oh now there is a thought eh....maybe we should try the swedish derogation tactics with them and the bankers too....

Not only are we extremists/liars/luddites/snobs (take your pick or bargain pack of 4!) for criticising slave labour work schemes, but a little birdie tells me Our Dear Leader is very very upset about all the nasty "anti-business rhetoric" and says: "We've got to fight this mood with all we've got.."

But fear not, the bankers of RBS were still given £390m in bonuses - average investment banker got £22k - while branch staff have only been offered 1% pay rises..so I don't think the poor little bankers are suffering TOO much, poor lambs..Meanwhile, Public Sector workers get no rise, no bonus..

The BBC World Service reports that the disabled in Bolivia have marched and are demanding annual subsidy of $400 to survive. Bolivian Government says it cannot afford that and can only pay a fraction of what they are asking for.

I should add to the above as we are supposed to be a more aflluent country and have moved so far on social issues and rights, it seems so wrong that we seem to be going backwards.

I don't know enough about Bolivia to say if it is a poor country and cannot afford to genuinely help the disadvantaged or its political.

One thing I have said before, elsewhere, is that countries that seem to be more free and open at some point seem scared and go the other way seemingly clamping down on their population whereas often countries that are oppressed and are closed sooner or later become more open.

Typical bully,he can dish it out but he cannot take it himself.How dare the peasants/disabled/sick/unemployed talk back?What is also so ironic is one the biggest snobs on the planet called others snobs.

My Mum has never been very political but in her advanced years and whilst seriously ill even she asks how can seemingly one man put through so many of these bad ideas and have them pass into law.

I know that a Government cannot speak for all the population as we are all individuals and therefore havedifferent opinions and views but in the end supposedly MP's are our servants and are there yes, to do what's for the good of the country but they should listen to the people and those who put them there.

Surely, there are enough who want to look after the sick and vulnerable, the elderly, the unemployed and yes, those who work.

Most people only ask for enough money to avoid getting into debt and to be able to pay their bills and see that their loved one's are looked after.

Many of us would be happy with what would be seen as a simplistic life and most have similar goals for their lives.

If the government are determined that JSA is a suitable wage lets have them put their money where their mouths are.[/QUOTE]

With luck this petition should hit the 100'000 target in around 3 months easily with over one million unemployed but the skill here is for the unemployed to see it just as the skill here is for the sick and disabled to read this blog Some people just wont know about it but there will be also many who couldn't care on how the poor live and with regret they will be in the majority by far

Fingers crossed that it does eventually get up that far. When I submitted it I thought it would be rejected out of hand but heres hoping.

I would really really love to see them try to squirm their way out of explaining that £67.50pw is enough for severely disabled and even terminally sick people to be paid for a 30hr job - but not enough for them.

I read your article last night supporting the militant campaigners who are trying to destroy the work experience scheme and I thought I would write to explain to you what you are actually opposing and supporting protest against.

The work experience scheme works like this.

After a young person has been unemployed for typically 12 weeks, the Jobcentre Plus adviser will sit down and talk through different job options and possible sectors where they might be interested in working and where there might be jobs available.

Say they express an interest in care, for example, Jobcentre Plus will then offer them a possible short-term work experience placement of between two and eight weeks with an organisation in the care sector. If they are interested, and we have an appropriate placement available, then we will send them to meet the employer. If they get on, and the young person wants to do the placement, they will start with that organisation. If things don’t work out, they have an automatic right to leave the placement within the first week. If they pull out after that, in order to protect the employer and the time they have committed to the placement, then we will investigate what has gone wrong, and if they have no good reason for leaving then they can face the same sanction as someone who does not turn up for their fortnightly signing-on interview. We only sanction a tiny proportion of people, since this is a voluntary scheme and the situation almost never arises.

In the case of the retail sector, someone who is placed with one of the big retailers, like Tesco, will be there because they have expressed an interest in working in the retail sector but have little or no experience of it.

So far our experience has been that a significant number of placements turn into jobs, with the employer getting to like the young person and keeping them on. We have had cases of jobs being offered within days.

Where there is no job available, we have often seen people get a job with a similar employer very quickly. So for example, I was in the north-west recently and talked to a Jobcentre Plus adviser who had managed to place a number of young people who had done work experience with one retailer, with another who had vacancies.

As you will have seen, so far around half those doing placements have come off benefits very quickly afterwards.

This is the scheme the protesters, who you are supporting, are trying to destroy.

It’s proving to be one of the best and quickest ways to help young unemployed people into jobs in the face of a frequent reluctance by employers to hire someone with little or no experience.

I appreciate that you are strongly opposed to many of the reforms that we are pushing through, and that we will generally disagree. But writing an article backing the destruction of one of the most effective schemes we have for helping young people get into work at a time when we have a real problem with youth unemployment defies my comprehension. Particularly when you have so often called for action to tackle youth unemployment.

Best wishes

Chris Grayling

Polly was quick to post a reply:

Few who know how the programme actually works would recognise Chris Grayling’s description. I supported Michael Heseltine’s programme, which was also dubbed workfare in 1996, because he obeyed three vital principles for a good work scheme: people were paid extra above their benefits for working, the work was for charities or communities, so no danger of displacing minimum wage shelf-stackers at Tesco and the pressure was applied at a time when jobs were plentiful. You have disregarded all three. The protest against Tesco has done nothing but good. Now Tesco is offering pay and a guaranteed permanent job to all on the scheme – and that makes all the difference to its worth. Well done protesters! "

Permission to share this far and wide Goebbels was on the Radio 4 "Today" programme this morning

"have just sent the following email to Chris Grayling - anyone who resents being classified as "a front for the SWP", an "extremist" or a "militant campaigner" should do the same:

"Dear SirHaving listened carefully to the interview you gave this morning I must protest in the strongest possible terms your assertion that objection to the two Work Experience Programmes has been orchestrated by "a group acting as a front for the 'Socialist Workers' Party'".

I have campaigned strenuously against these programmes because I believe them to be fundamentally flawed and morally bankrupt. I am not, and never have been, associated in any way with the Socialist Workers' Party - or indeed any other left wing political group. Neither am I an "extremist" nor a "militant campaigner" as you inferred in your open letter to a Guardian reporter recently.

When you made these statements about me - and the many people like me - you were not, I believe, covered by 'Parliamentary Privilege' as the statements were not made in the Houses of Parliament. I therefore require that you PUBLICLY retract the said statements and admit that they were a sweeping generalisation and basically incorrect.

In the event that such a retraction is not made, I will have no alternative but to seek legal redress.

I followed the outrage of the general public on Tesco's Facebook and even Daily Mail Online visitors!! However I have been shocked by how it has been debated on the Daily Politics,Newsnight and last night on Question Time where the entire panel just didn't understand why people were upset and the nasty comment from Christina Odius on the young girl taking this issue to Court!The experience of the three men on Newsnight seemed to be irrelevant and the girl representing anti workfare was no match for Andrew Neil.I felt Paxman,Neil and Dimbleby didn't want anyone able to really articulate what was really going on.I have lost respect for all of them.How I dreamed about Sue being on all three programmes to give them all a good tongue lashing!!

We did get Owen Jones - on Question Time and 10 O Clock live - he kicks ass - almost exactly in the words I would want to.

I also thought the three who'd done work experience on Newsnight were almost biased in our favour! After all, there was no-one sitting there saying they'd found it wonderful.

The frustrating bit is definitely the attitudes of the presenters. Even those who are usually scrupulously fair just seem to HATE the fact they're being forced to question their preconceptions on welfare and the cuts etc,

A few politicians might be able to point to times when they did work before being an MP, that they hated or had to do something that they thought beneath them.

They might if we are lucky have some anecdotal tales about how difficult life was as they grew up and saw the struggle and sacrifices their parents made etc...

But many especially at this time are unlikely to have had such an experience as many in power went into private schools or University(often being given virtually free education)and now they are taking away much of what they enjoyed away from the population and then having put a stop to that they have then continued to go after those who are further down the ladder with even less. And many of them probably had the safety net knowing if things went belly up someone would bail them out.

I'm not even sure I can always get annoyed when they say those who are poor have perhaps a satellite system...if you have a family and there are enough of them over 18, they probably could pool their money and afford a system. It will be cheaper than going out to the actual events(concerts/sporting event)or going to the cinema.

Even the genuine people who are not lazy have to have some kind of treat and something to keep them entertained.

I have a satellite system but those who pass by don't realise that I do not take the movie or sports channels and mainly use it to hear some radio stations and I watch little TV at all.

I rarely drink and I don't smoke but I can see the day when I'll cancel and/or if I decide to take it up again I'll go for Freeview and that's free except for the license fee.

And how many people might've had satellite systems and were working and then fell on hard times? If that happened to me I would not necessarily have it taken out as I'd hope to be working again and afford it again. Some of thes people might have cancelled so unless you go in to the house and see for yourself what they are doing their is a lot of guesswork and sterotypical views.

Question Time was absolutely disgusting last night the whole panel basically agreed with slavery (Workfare). I was so furious I was shaking with anger. They can't win the argument because Workfare slavery is indefensible so they resort to strawmen arguments, misrepresentation and outright lies. I will not be watching it ever again.

I'm listening to Radio 5 live now and they have on as a guest an American ultra right-wing extremist Charlie Wolf on to discuss Workfare slavery. Gee I wonder what he is going to say. Following him it is Jim Davidson on, who said "fuck em" about starving Africans. It's getting beyond the joke now.

The BBC is as bad as Pravda was in the Soviet Union now, they might as well have given Murdoch his BskyB tv bid.

i think sue will at some point end up like Nelson Mandela he stood his ground on anti-apartheid and become a hero and i think sue will become a hero in the same mould as nelson on being a hero for the sick and disabled

It doesnt stop does it?Just been pointed toward this little gem:http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1530-no-esa-for-claimants-who-want-to-appeal?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Benefits+and+Work&utm_content=23+Feb+2012

Not sure if Sue and the Sparticii have seen it.Basically clause 99 of the WRB there will be a mandatory review period placed before anyone is allowed to lodge an appeal against a decision - sounds good in theory having another decision maker look over the file before adding it to the backlogged appeals system, however there are two glaring holes:*The review period has no limit - it can go on indefinately with little resource for the person to push for a decision so they can either get what they are entitled to or appeal.*During the review process there will be no payments of the benefit is question - currently if appealing you receive a review rate, this will remove that.

Essentially it means if you object to a decision (and with ATOS and the PIP criteria its likely you will!) you face a review period without payment that has the potential to be indefinate. For many people DLA is critical and ESA is their only source of income so this would destroy them!

New figures show that the rate at which the long-term unemployed have come off benefits has halved since the launch of the Work Programme.

Eighty-five charities working with large private firms to help people back into work have dropped out of the Work Programme since it was first launched in 2010, citing growing concerns that they were being muscled out of earnings.

I've rang the hotline up ....reported some German immigrants in a London Council House that should be sent back ...Betty Saxe Coburg and her husband Phil the Greek and mentioned her brood , Prince Tampax and Camilla , " Theatrical Edward " ..., Randy Air Miles Andy , and the other hangers on ......a certain Emma Harrison that should be strung up ....and asked for a certain Mad Eton George and Lord Snooty of Chipping Norton to be reported for dishonestly claiming Child Benefit and DLA too

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I have a rare form of Crohn's Disease. I was diagnosed 21 years ago and have had many operations to remove strictures (narrowings in my bowel that grow like tumours) I suffer daily pain, often vomiting, malnourished and weak. I take mega-strong medications every day including chemo-style immuno-suppressants, opiates and anti-sickness injections. Sometimes I am fed into my central vein by tube, other times I can enjoy a nice meal out. I have children that I often can't look after and a husband who often looks after me.
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